Using the right tools can transform how you approach your edits, especially for landscapes. Lightroom’s intersect feature offers a powerful way to create precise adjustments, making it invaluable for a range of edits.
Coming to you from Christian Möhrle with The Phlog Photography, this comprehensive video dives into Lightroom’s intersect feature and its applications. Möhrle begins by working with an HDR merge to create a dynamic starting point, blending five images for optimal exposure balance. The process is seamless, requiring just a few clicks to merge files and maintain quality. From there, he adjusts the image’s profile to Adobe Landscape for richer saturation, increases exposure slightly, and warms the white balance to reduce the blue cast in snow-covered areas. These foundational edits set the stage for more intricate adjustments using masks.
The intersect feature takes center stage in Möhrle’s tutorial, where he demonstrates its ability to combine masking tools for precision. For example, he enhances a bright sky by intersecting a sky mask with a linear gradient. This combination targets only the brightest parts of the sky, allowing him to reduce exposure and add warmth without affecting darker areas. Möhrle further refines the sky by introducing specific colors through color overlays and adjusting highlights for a vibrant, warm-toned sunset effect. This technique shows how the intersect feature can isolate hard-to-reach areas, giving you more control over your edits.
Möhrle doesn’t stop at the sky. He uses similar techniques to refine the foreground, adjusting exposure and texture to brighten the scene and add depth. A radial gradient focuses on a frozen lake, bringing clarity and sharpness to this central element. He also uses a color range mask to highlight grass in the foreground, carefully selecting and brightening it to balance the composition. These steps highlight how targeted edits can draw attention to key elements while maintaining a natural look.
To complete the image, Möhrle explores color grading and sharpening. By boosting warm tones in the highlights and balancing them with cooler tones in the midtones, he enhances the color contrast and vibrancy. Using the calibration tab, he fine-tunes the image further by adjusting saturation and hues. Finally, he sharpens the image with a focus on important details, ensuring a crisp and polished result. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Möhrle.
And if you really want to dive into landscape photography, check out our latest tutorial, "Photographing the World: Japan II - Discovering Hidden Gems with Elia Locardi!”
